Statement on The Balance
With the PDGA approval of the Simon Line Balance (Prototype) we have a few important things to discuss. First off, why Prototype? As a collaboration between Simon and MVP, the Simon Line represents a melding of Simon’s lifetime of disc golf experience and MVP’s technical expertise. As such, Simon Line discs have a longer development time – we all want to make sure each disc is exactly what we’re looking for. From hand feel to flight, it has to be perfect. When the first Balances came off the machine, everyone was quite excited. The feel was exactly what we wanted – a slightly low profile midrange, accompanied by a bead – and the excitement in the room was palpable.
However, after thorough testing, the stability and flight that we saw wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. As you all know by now, creating a disc designed to hit an intended stability – where fractions of a millimeter will result in a different disc – is not an easy task. After years of learning and hard-earned expertise, it’s something we have pride in achieving more often than not. This time, unfortunately, we were a few hundred microns off. Instead of creating a disc between the Reactor and the Pyro, we had made something more similar to the Runway and the Pyro. It was a hard decision, as this disc – while excellent – wasn’t what we were looking for. To get that ideal flight, the decision was made to go back to the drawing board and fully retool the Balance. However, we still had a perfectly excellent overstable midrange here – what do we do with that?
We could release the initial prototype run in a very limited quantity to our dealers – similar to what we did with the Time-Lapse. However, we’d still need the disc to be PDGA approved with its own unique name because of the impending retooling. That is a decent amount of hassle for an extremely limited run, and it’d likely lead to some fan disappointment as well if we went through that just to keep it extremely limited – especially for a Simon Line release. That thought process led us to our solution – we’d PDGA approve it as the “Simon Line Balance (Prototype)” and retool the Balance in the meantime so it can deliver the flight we were initially looking for later. This gives GYROnauts access to a part of the development process of a Simon Line disc that otherwise would never be released, while also allowing that disc to be PDGA legal as well.
However, there’s another wrinkle to this whole situation – there is a disc currently PDGA approved for the name “Balance.” Knowing why we have submitted a Prototype for approval is one thing, but why are we submitting a disc name for a name that has technically already been approved by the PDGA? The answer there is that MVP believes we have already secured the trademark application priority date to the name “Balance” for use in disc golf.
The Simon Line brand is extremely important to us, and the development process for discs is a long and arduous one. With those two things in mind, MVP decided to register trademarks ahead of time for names that Simon and ourselves felt were integral to the Simon Line. In photography and filmography, the concept of balance is everywhere – from composition of the frame, to the steady hand and mind required to shoot, and even to post processing – balance and cameras are inseparable. That’s why MVP went through the expensive process of registering Balance as a trademark on 12/13/2023.
As we built the mold over the next handful of months, secure in the protection that the trademark registration process provides, our minds turned to planning and executing our 2024 release schedule. It wasn’t until June that we had realized that a company had submitted a disc for PDGA approval with the name “Balance” in late May. Needless to say, that news was certainly a shock to our system. We reached out to the company to let them know the situation. We assumed that this was a misunderstanding on their part and that we’d be able to find an amicable solution after a quick conversation. However, even after explaining the situation to them, the company was unwilling to budge as they felt their situation gave them priority to the name.
As you might expect, we were unable to find an agreement over the next few months, which brings us to here. We have the utmost confidence in our registered trademark rights, and fully expect our pending trademark to be registered. It’s an unfortunate situation that we tried our best to avoid, but we need to actively protect even our pending intellectual property – especially for something as important as the Simon Line. Releasing to the market is our next step in this process. As such, expect more news about the Simon Line Balance (Prototype) in the near future.
That is the complete, and long, history of the Simon Line Balance (Prototype). Despite the bumpy road, we are extremely excited about where the Balance is heading, and we’re also looking forward to letting you all enjoy the development process alongside us with the upcoming release of the Simon Line Balance (Prototype). Stay tuned for more information on that front. If you’re interested in learning more about trademark law and how it pertains to the growing sport of disc golf, please visit our Intellectual Property page for more information.
Sincerely,
MVP Disc Sports
Edited 10/29/2024 to correct clerical error
